Z4: THE HORSE. 



curbs, or even incipient spavins or ringbones, tliey are certain 

 of fetching at least twenty-five pounds for leaders of the fast 

 coaches ; and probably are now worth as much for horsing the 

 rural omnibuses and railroad tenders. 



No sort of breeding in England is so profitable as this. The 

 breeder is comparatively secured against any thing like ulti- 

 mate loss, while he has a fair chance of drawing a capital prize, 

 in the shape of a first-rate hunter, or a carriage horse of supe- 

 rior quality ; and it is to the breeding of such class of animals 

 that the attention of the farmers, in horse-breeding counties, is 

 wholly directed at this date. 



For this reason, one has no more pure Cleveland Bays, the 

 use of the stallion of that breed being entirely discontinued ; 

 large, bony, slow thoroughbreds of good form, and great power, 

 which have not succeeded on the turf, having been substituted 

 for them, even for the getting of cart and farming-team horses ; 

 and the farmers finding it decidedly to their advantage to work 

 large, roomy, bony, half or two-third bred mares, out of which, 

 when they grow old, or if by chance they meet an accident, 

 they may raise hunters, coach horses, or, at the worst chargei-s, 

 or machiners, rather than to plough with garrons and weeds, 

 the stock of which would be valueless and worthless, except for 

 the merest drudgery. 



It is of these horses, that I am perfectly convinced, trotters 

 might be made of the highest quality, if those most fitted to 

 the purpose were selected for that end by men properly quali- 

 fied to judge of them, and were then trained and trotted, ac- 

 cording to American rules, by such men as Spicer, AVoodruff, 

 or Wheelan — and tliat such could be furnished, even in greater 

 numbers, than they are here, in America, from hunting stables, 

 and farm-studs devoted to the rearing of such animals, I have 

 no sort of doubt. 



I have seen several American trotters, which, from their ap- 

 pearance, would have passed as English huntei-s — especially those 

 of Messenger's get — and which, I doubt not, if trained for that 

 purpose, would have shone as much across country as they did 

 on the trotting turf. I would particularly specify that very ex- 

 cellent and game animal, of the olden day, who accomplished 

 the then — I speak of twenty years ago and upward — rare feat 



Library 

 W. C, State r i (^r^m 



